


After (Version 2.0)

by emorosadiaz



Series: for all the things my hands have held, the best by far is you [8]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Infinity War spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 04:58:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14465541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emorosadiaz/pseuds/emorosadiaz
Summary: post-infinity war starmora fic;the original “after”was (almost) post-vol. 2. pls do not read if you don’t wanna get spoiledt….pls….i’m just a simpleton whom needed to process her feelings thru fic…major majormajoriw spoilers for starmora ahead !!!!!!!





	After (Version 2.0)

**Author's Note:**

> i am emotional after iw and rushing to post this before boarding my plane AAAHHHH
> 
> anyway don't read unless you've seen iw or just wanna be spoiled i guess

He dies the same way his dad did: crumbling to dust, blown away by the wind, dissolving to nothing.

He dies the same way his dad did: angry, frustrated, feeling completely out of control over the universe and his fate. 

And yet, he doesn’t die the same way his dad did, because no one is there to hold him.

When Peter Quill opens his eyes once more, after his reduction to ash, it’s in a world of water, with seemingly nothing in sight.

That is, until he turns, and finds someone standing with her back to him, a faint breeze dancing through her hair.

Apparently, in this strange state, he can see more than he could before in his mortal life, because the image of her body crumpled on the ground, blood trickling from her forehead with the shadow of a cliff looming over her, dances across his vision for just a moment—

And in the next, he’s back in the present, his feet splashing up a storm of water behind him, as he runs to her.

She turns just in time to receive him, and unlike the broken version of her he’d seen, she catches his running form with her usual strength and grace, her hands settling on his back as he envelops her.

“ _Gamora_ ,” he chokes out, burying his face in her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her frame shaking with the soft cries he’s become all too familiar with. “I’m so sorry. He had Nebula—“

“ _I’m_ sorry,” he cuts in, hugging her more tightly, “for almost shooting you.”

“You were _supposed_ to shoot me.”

“I’m sorry I failed, but I’m more sorry that I was almost successful.”

He’s crying now, too, in tandem with her own sobs, because they _lost_.

(But the war was lost when Gamora was lost, in Peter’s opinion.)

“I love you.” He pulls his head away just enough to kiss her forehead, where he saw the bloody cut on her unmoving body just minutes before. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” she says, sniffling. She meets his eyes. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I screwed up,” he admits, holding back a flinch at the memory of his outburst, just before he and the others could remove the gauntlet from Thanos’ hand. “This—this is all on me.”

“I shouldn’t have told him where the Soul Stone was,” she murmurs. “It’s my fault.”

“He _killed_ you,” Peter says.

“Yeah,” Gamora says. A shudder passes through her body. She swallows. “ _Yeah_.”

And he thinks of that image of her once more—cold, broken, _alone_.

Gamora died alone.

(Thanos doesn’t count as company. Thanos is the reason why. Thanos _pushed_ her. Thanos—)

(In the next life, should they get one, Peter _swears_ to kill Thanos, harder than he’s killed anyone before, harder than Ronan or Ego or _anyone_ , because Gamora had to die _alone_.)

“He killed you, too,” she says when he doesn’t say anything more.

“At least we’re together again,” he tries, offering the slightest of smiles. “This is how that Terran love story I was telling you about ends, remember? Romeo and Juliet?”

“You told me it was a double suicide,” she drones, despite the tearful quiver in her voice.

“Semantics,” he shrugs, pulling her closely to him once more and pressing a kiss to her hairline. “The point is I love you.”

She leans into him. “I know.”

He grins. “Nice.” 

They high-five, though it’s nothing grand; it’s soft and ends with their fingers intertwined. A comfortable silence washes over them, and, he thinks, maybe this isn’t so bad.

Maybe the universe is half-destroyed, yet to be fully destroyed, but having Gamora by his side easily overwrites that dread.

Maybe this is their happy ending, after all.

Maybe…in the future, he will truly believe these things.

Because in reality, he meets Gamora’s eyes, and under the tears, sees a reflection of his own determination, burning his insides, pushing him to do _something_.

Reality is one of the stones—the one that’d been their downfall. Its power is immense, yet it’s only one of six equally powerful stones, all with the power to fix the universe.

At least, that’s what he thinks. And by the way she looks at him, he’s pretty sure it’s what she’s thinking, too.

So, they have their moment, let it wash over them, cleansing them of their mistakes that led them here.

Finally, Gamora sighs and squeezes his hand. “I don’t think this is the end for us.”

“I don’t think so either,” Peter says, looking at the nothingness around them, “considering I somehow hacked my way into this weird soul-stone-realm-thing just to be with you.”

“You once drunkenly told me your ‘superpower’ was love, after all.”

For the first time since they were alive, Gamora smiles with her usual cautious confidence, and Peter knows everything will be okay—somehow, someway.


End file.
